User Reviews

The thing to understand about shows like Ozma is there's really very little happy mediums. There's a tendency to either really love or really hate it, with both sides having very valid points to support their views. Neither side is wrong. This is all about taste.

It's a Leijiverse thing, really.

Art style is not the only thing you'll see familiar if you've ever
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EPISODE 01

The thing to understand about shows like Ozma is there's really very little happy mediums. There's a tendency to either really love or really hate it, with both sides having very valid points to support their views. Neither side is wrong. This is all about taste.

It's a Leijiverse thing, really.

Art style is not the only thing you'll see familiar if you've ever passed a glance over at other Matsumoto standards (Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Battleship Yamato, etc.). Character names are recycled and given to new personalities. Hardly a bad thing; in fact, it's rather entertaining to see so many familiar faces and names showing up, mixing things around, and giving us a whole new sandbox to play in. (There is a tiny bit of heartbreak for those who've watched the Arcadia of My Youth film, though...)

There's no shortage of sand. Rather than taking to the sea of stars as is very common in Matsumoto works, Ozma is on the ground, in a post-apocalyptic-style desert. It's a nice spin on the typical slew of space/sky pirates: sand pirates, it looks like. The true nature of this interesting crew remains to be seen, and we'll have five more episodes to see what happens.

The personalities are crisp and very forefront in this episode. The pacing, unlike several other Matsumoto shows, is a lot quicker (obviously due to the episode limit), which keeps your attention right from the start to finish. Already we have our protagonists and antagonists in tow (save for at least one, it seems): bright-eyed boy, mysterious and beautiful woman on the run, spunky girl, strong-willed captain, and others.

It's very nice to see so many female characters fleshing out the cast as compared to so many other shows in and out of the genre. Several different types are on deck, though, naturally, all in that very familiar Matsumoto art style. If you're a fan of his work, I think you'll really enjoy seeing all the different cuts and attitudes the ladies bring to the table.

If our mysterious masked not-really-Harlock-but-you-can't-deny-that-resemblance man is anything to go by, we're in for a bit of drama. Again, such is Leijiverse! And I welcome it. This episode balanced its start-up action with a great deal of introductory pleasantness. It also looks like this show has a bit more budget than the other recent Leijiverse additions (Cosmo Warrior Zero, Gun Frontier, etc.); the animation is a lot smoother and less clunky than I expected. Expressions and comedic timing are really clicking in this episode, too; Sam Coyne/Coin really captures and holds on to attention.

New to Matsumoto titles? Don't be afraid. Give it a shot! You might find yourself as charmed as I am. If not, hey. No shame in giving something its good turn, and a Leiji Matsumoto work is a great thing for any anime fan, young or old, to give a shot.

Overall, I'm very excited to see where this goes. For something so brief, it has the makings of a very entertaining ride. Fingers crossed!

EPISODE 02

With character introductions more or less taken care of, this episode moves right into the test of wills between Captain Bynas/Bainas' sandship crew and Gido (the masked Harlock lookalike mentioned previously) – the former looking to make an escape with the mysterious Maya. This is the bulk of the episode: a big game of chicken, testing the resolve of two leaders against the survival of an entire crew.

The mood has shifted very pointedly from wide-eyed, spirited adventure to tense drama – a bit overdramatic, at that. This is true to the Leijiverse style; old fans were ready for this, new fans are going to be tested here. This is melodrama you either grow to love or will roll your eyes at.

Point in case: Our mysterious miss Maya is the only one to truly suffer under the downright suffocating conditions building in the ship as it rests, buried under the sand waiting for Gido's crew to give up the wait. In her defense, the ship is buried under the sand of a blazing hot desert, and she's probably never endured such conditions before. I can cut her some slack. It gives other members of the cast to show their stances on her – the most mysterious being that of the sometimes-drunken doctor. In case you missed the whole army-chasing-one-woman-down part from the first episode, Maya's got some significance. As to what precisely is unknown as of yet.

This episode spotlights the opposing captains more than anything, though. And that interesting ship. Bynas has that famous iron will of previous Matsumoto captains, whereas ironically (but not unexpectedly) it's Gido who relents. A nice little mixer for old fans, but all watchers can still enjoy.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your tastes), it seems there's a lot of effort to make this show streamline more closely to contemporary anime designs, which is making for really strange moments in the animation. Staying on-model is difficult, especially with how stylized these characters already are. Derp-mouths and awkward profiles (especially of our latest new character) are in play. They provide little unexpected, unintentional moments of derp/humor. Gotta love it.

With Gido's superior revealed, things are starting to move closer to a more apparent conflict, a reveal of secrets.

We've all seen Claymore, and we've all seen the little derp following Claire around shrieking Claire! Claire! Claire! while being useless and in the way, but who'd have thought that very voice actor would portray the lead character in this desert world chasing after a gigantic sand-whale while being easily distracted by anything obviously impossible or of great consequence?

Sam, a child
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We've all seen Claymore, and we've all seen the little derp following Claire around shrieking Claire! Claire! Claire! while being useless and in the way, but who'd have thought that very voice actor would portray the lead character in this desert world chasing after a gigantic sand-whale while being easily distracted by anything obviously impossible or of great consequence?

Sam, a child with the face of an adult (it's true, and it's gross) finds the typical other-worldly and far-removed white haired woman obviously destined to become one with some higher entity (basic stereotype I predicted in the first episode) and decides she NEEDS RESCUING. Sorry giant sand whale, I have to cause trouble for my crew to save this girl who doesn't acknowledge my existence! In fact, I have no idea how to do ANYTHING I adamantly insist on doing!

To quote a line from episode 4 or 5, he actually says "She could need rescuing right now!" As though it were some sort of ability only he could apply to her. As if he could "bring the rescuing" and "apply the rescue!" then carry on after being miserably side-tracked from his obviously impossible goal.

He has no skill, he has no thought process, he is simple, unintelligent, and has zero endearing qualities. He doesn't even have any REDEEMING qualities. Within seconds of trying to sneak on a ship holding Maya (white haired other-worldly girl) against his crew-mates' shrieking to stop because he's not capable of doing anything of the sort, he sneaks along for five seconds and is immediately captured. Again, he has no skill, no tactics, no abilities to speak of, and gets everyone else in trouble.

He is like a cartoon of a cartoon suffering from intense ADHD and cannot focus on one thing for more than six seconds before becoming utterly determined to save/rescue/defeat something, apparently by getting injured, caught, captured, or thrown hundreds of meters away forcing his crew to reclaim him and tell him to stop, only for him to escape them moments later to continue APPLYING THE RESCUE.

All the other characters have qualities that deserve to be in an anime. The captain Bainas should be the lead character, if not the blonde girl Sam's age. He is too petty and immature to be a lead, and his voice actor is just as annoying and pitiful as it was in Claymore causing me to wish for two things: The anime to end, or Sam to die horrifically. Luckily the series was only 7 episodes, which I could barely tolerate.

The plot holes are like craters (how do they get off of Ozma at the end? Sam shouts "Let's go!" and they RUN. Run where? Into the water with prehistoric giant fish? He has no acrobatic abilities or grappling hooks, he has NO ABILITIES. The scenes in the ship with the crew all manning their stations when Sam is actually in the shot just has him standing there doing nothing! All he does is occasionally mutter "Captain!" or "Maya!" or "Ozma!"

Even when it's clear Maya has to serve a higher purpose, he continues to pathetically plead and yell MAYA! As if she's going to turn around and say "Yes, Sam? Is there something you'd like to tell me?" He'd just blush and say the typical "um, er, well, you see, I...well..maya.." then she'd turn to leave and he'd shriek "MAYA!!!!" again.

My review may not be well received, and I did like some of the other characters, but the anime would've done SO much better without Sam in it--he simply ruined the flow of the series. There isn't a single thing he did that couldn't, and wouldn't have been taken care of (only properly) had he not existed. When Maya is suffering from heat-stroke on the ship, he runs up with a towel and a cup of water like he's holding a cure for world hunger and yells I HAVE WATER!!!! Only to be promptly ignored. Then he chugs it and celebrates like he did something. He later brags that he fanned Maya in an oven-like furnace of a ship--because that helps--blowing hot air on a hot person.

He makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake and it made me ill, it made me hate him, and ultimately hate the anime. I don't understand who puts characters like this in existence when producing such works, but it should be abundantly clear that they serve no purpose. The main character should NOT be the comic relief, especially when they aren't funny. The main character should NOT be a hero when they cannot perform anything heroic. The main character should not pursue unrealistic goals when they are completely unable to even fathom the necessities in completing, let alone starting what is required to take on such tasks.

Remove Sam, remove that voice actor (I thought American voice actors were terrible but this girl {yes it's a girl}) is just hard to listen to; and make Bainas the main character. Have her focus on finding Dick, through whatever connection to Ozma he had, and since she rescues Maya anyway, have her use the intelligence and cunning she shows throughout the anime when we aren't watching Sam screw everything up every six minutes.

This series could be better described as a miniseries. Seriously only 5 episodes is condensing this story way too much. anyways so this is a post Apocalypse all the water dried up story the sifi elements were pretty interesting and if you like the art style of shows like galaxy express 999 then you will like the art style. the motion animation was kind of crappy in places and the story seems
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This series could be better described as a miniseries. Seriously only 5 episodes is condensing this story way too much. anyways so this is a post Apocalypse all the water dried up story the sifi elements were pretty interesting and if you like the art style of shows like galaxy express 999 then you will like the art style. the motion animation was kind of crappy in places and the story seems really protracted the ending was ok but the characters were kind of weak in my opinion still it wasnt bad so 3 out of 5

How can something be so formulaic? It's as if it was written from a handbook. (And not even well for that matter.)

It feels like I've seen this exact same anime at least 10 times by now. If you want to watch the same anime but slightly better executed, I can point you to Last Exile. Or if you want to see where all the lines and scenes were stolen from, watch Laputa, and Nausicaa.

I like most of Leiji Matsumoto's work, having seen three of his best animes before: Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Maetel, and Emeraldas (all episodes and movies). Ozma was the shortest, but had the best action, the best anime, the best music, and the best ending! I will not spoil the ending, but the center of the poster (the glowing woman) is a hint. The other hint is: Titan A.E.(the
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I like most of Leiji Matsumoto's work, having seen three of his best animes before: Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, Maetel, and Emeraldas (all episodes and movies). Ozma was the shortest, but had the best action, the best anime, the best music, and the best ending! I will not spoil the ending, but the center of the poster (the glowing woman) is a hint. The other hint is: Titan A.E.(the movie).

The story is simple, but takes all six episodes to understand. There are plenty of characters, and are very similar to the ones in the three animes (one Captain looks like Harlock!) I mentioned above But the naval action (ships that travel and fight under SAND!) is superb, and amazingly done with great CGI. The Ozma is the biggest surprise and only the last episode explains what it is.

I enjoyed every minute of this short anime. Leiji Matsumoto has done a super masterpiece!

It's no Galaxy Express 999 but it's much better than the average scifi anime.

I'd give it a 4 but a lot of ideas were clearly borrowed from Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind". Ozma is basically a mechanical version of the "Ohmu" in Nausicaa's world. Nausicaa (manga, not anime) also had the idea of a hidden storehouse of pre-apocalypse life forms.

I do acknowledge though that
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It's no Galaxy Express 999 but it's much better than the average scifi anime.

I'd give it a 4 but a lot of ideas were clearly borrowed from Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind". Ozma is basically a mechanical version of the "Ohmu" in Nausicaa's world. Nausicaa (manga, not anime) also had the idea of a hidden storehouse of pre-apocalypse life forms.

I do acknowledge though that Matsumoto had his own angle on a post ecological apocalyptic world. Maybe he couldn't develop his ideas as fully as Miyazaki since he only had 6 episodes.

Matsumoto-san is something of an acquired taste these days. The character design will be familiar to those who have watched any Galaxy Express 999, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Battleship Yamato, or Star Blazers, all legendary titles in an earlier era of Anime. Ozma fits well among these classics, but it's from another time, so it doesn't always sit well with younger generations who have
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Matsumoto-san is something of an acquired taste these days. The character design will be familiar to those who have watched any Galaxy Express 999, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Battleship Yamato, or Star Blazers, all legendary titles in an earlier era of Anime. Ozma fits well among these classics, but it's from another time, so it doesn't always sit well with younger generations who have been weaned on Naruto, Death Note, One Piece, FMA, Bleach, and the like.

Considering that it's Matsumoto and there are only six episodes, it's rather disappointing that some of the animation just isn't really great. I would expect a great deal more care would have been applied to such a production. Too bad my expectations are clearly not met. The story is quite interesting and engaging, however, and I really like the rather novel idea of sub surface ship operations on an Earth with no oceans. My uninformed guess is some sort of electrical or sonic liquefaction process. Neat. I love scifi.

So, if you can't wrap your mind around old-school anime, this likely won't be for you. If, however, you go a kick out of any of Matsumoto-san's old work, you'll enjoy this a great deal.

OZMA is a fun anime to watch. For all of its glorified uses of naval terms and essentially serious story, it's easy to take in, not much of a time commitment, and surprisingly carefree in the finer details. Imagine a show about naval battles that take place in sand instead of water (it's the future and the planet's oceans have dried up) where the outcomes of the battles determine the new natural
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OZMA is a fun anime to watch. For all of its glorified uses of naval terms and essentially serious story, it's easy to take in, not much of a time commitment, and surprisingly carefree in the finer details. Imagine a show about naval battles that take place in sand instead of water (it's the future and the planet's oceans have dried up) where the outcomes of the battles determine the new natural order of the planet. It's very exciting and paces itself nicely to effectively raise the stakes and make the action more gripping with every single progressive episode. I will say that the characters are largely shallow with very little development and very few background hints, but they get the job done. The main character, Sam, is pretty generic and cliché for a "younger brother who admires his older brother" protagonist. The ship's captain, Bainas, is a tough woman to bargain with, but ends up being little more than a longing tsundere whose dere side comes out only for about two minutes in the whole series. Them aside, there honestly aren't any noteworthy characters from a storytelling perspective, despite the 4 others depicted on the show's cover picture. I know it sounds like I'm bashing the show, but it must be understood that the characters take a back seat to ideals and exciting naval battles, both of which are done very well. The music works, the voice acting is great, and the art is good-looking and crisp. Incidentally, I saw a surprising number of people in the comments for each episode complaining about how the art looks dated. To that end, all I can say is that these people have never seen Leiji Matsumoto's style before. The look is not indicative of an era as much as it is of Leiji's work, all of which follow this style. Finally, it really needs to be said that OZMA is extremely similar - almost disturbingly so - to the anime movie Origin: Spirits of the Past. In the grand scale, the ideals being expressed in the two animes are nearly identical, even to the point that many of the same plot points are used as a vehicle to express those ideals. Sure, they look different and offer different tones, but if OZMA and Origin were lines, they would run parallel. I won't say which one is better, but I personally preferred Origin (probably because of its movie format, as opposed to OZMA's series format).

About the Show

“Leiji Matsumoto's OZMA – the show unfolds on an arid and devastated future Earth, and involves the mysterious, giant and moving ‘“OZMA.’” An
“Leiji Matsumoto's OZMA – the show unfolds on an arid and devastated future Earth, and involves the mysterious, giant and moving ‘“OZMA.’” An epic space opera that entwines exciting sci-fi action and a suspenseful story, anime godfather Leiji Matsumoto tackles the ultimate questions of life and existence.”
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